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We Raise Our Glasses to Carl Childs

7 February 2014

The editors of Out of the Box would like to give a belated good-bye to Carl Childs, the Library of Virginia’s former Local Records Services director. Last month, Carl started his new job as Director of Archives and Records for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. When former local records archivist Dale Dulaney first proposed our little blog five years ago, Carl’s support, encouragement, and leadership helped Dale’s idea become a reality. The result: the Out of the Box blog may be the most successful outreach tool used by the Library of Virginia. For the fiscal year ending 30 June 2013, Out of the Box had 435,859 page views, 221,667 visitors, and 369,123 visits.

Also during Carl’s tenure as director for the Local Records Services program, researchers gained online access to nearly nine million digital chancery images for 61 localities covering the years 1731-1933 (bulk 1770-1913). By working with his staff of processing archivists and quality assurance specialists, Carl helped to develop updated and efficient procedures and economical vendor contracts to digitally reformat these valuable historical records and make them available free of charge to users across the globe. Aspects of this endeavor have been utilized by other states in their efforts to save valuable local government historical records.

Carl was a tireless promoter of the CCRP. His outreach included speaking to historical societies and genealogical groups and encouraging his staff to do the same. He also made annual visits to court houses across the commonwealth. Carl may no longer be at the Library of Virginia, but the work he started continues. Good luck in your new endeavor, Carl.

Carl is a champion. I have had the pleasure of knowing him for the past 25 years and have been consistently floored by his knowledge, authenticity and humble decency. Thanks for sharing this farewell in which those of us who have known him in contexts outside of his work at the LVA can appreciate the depth and breadth of his impact on the Commonwealth. I’m certain he’ll be missed but I’m also so happy that he’s taking advantage of the fantastic opportunity in Williamsburg.